The Democratic Dialogue Project and the Country Office agreed to work together for providing technical support to the Citizen Audit Program (Programa de Auditoría Ciudadana, PAC). This agreement includes capacity building activities and technical assistance to enhance participatory mechanisms at the municipal level using the Civic Forums created by the program. The DD Project carried out the first two technical assistance missions to the Godoy Cruz and Diamante Municipalities to observe the operation of the PAC team leaders and provide suggestions. Also, the second training workshop with regional forum coordinators was delivered.

Cooperation framework with the nIMD. The Project facilitated and systematized a reflection journey with the Multiparty Institute for Political Studies for strengthening managerial and planning capacities, a Progress Review meeting for preparing the strategic objectives, and a meeting between the counterparts in Guatemala and a delegation from the Netherlands. An average of 15 participants were involved in each of the described activities.

Also within this framework, the Project designed and facilitated a Reflection Journey for the Permanent Forum of Political Parties for defining and own and autonomous structure for the political conduction of the Forum.

Environmental Actions. The Environment Cleaning and Conservation Association, “Kaji Imox” of San Pedro La Laguna, Sololá asked for support from the DD Project to design and facilitate a consciousness-raising workshop on the current environmental problems Lake Atitlán is facing, specifically the spread of Hydirlla and the effects this has on the lake. Thirty leaders from different sectors of the community (departmental governor, officials of the municipal corporation, members of several associations, trade-unionists, church, among others) participated. The following project proposals were discussed: Cleaning of the Lake, Garbage Dumps Arrangement, Drainage and Sieves, Public Washing Places, Public Beaches,

Environmental Education. The DD Project planted the seed for dialogue and gave methodological orientation to the core group, which agreed to keep working together.

National Dialogue for the National Social Agenda. The Project carried out two advisory missions in preparation for the Mexican national dialogue. The first stage of the support included the design and facilitation of a workshop with the Promoting Group of the dialogue, a videoconference with the team, and support in mapping out resource mobilization opportunities. Later, and facing a difficult political scenario in the country, Elena Díez, together with Adam Kahane, designed and conducted a deep-reflection meeting on the context and conditions for the National Dialogue. This meeting was part of the support provided by the Project to the Country Office in Mexico and the National Dialogue Promoter Group, which included: radio interviews (W Radio and Radio UNAM), meeting with promoters of the dialogue initiative, meeting with political leaders, press conference, meeting with Citizens for Dialogue, and an evaluation exercise.

In 2007, a capacity building and development program for dialogue facilitators will be implemented. In February, the first approaching meetings will be held with the participation of the Project’s team, regional and local Mexican actors, and members of Citizens for Dialogue and the National Democratic Dialogue. After these meetings, the Project will count with the necessary inputs to finish the design and contents for the workshops and courses for each region of the country.

Political Parties in the Fight Against Poverty. In October, the DD Project designed, facilitated and systematized the Regional Seminar of Political Parties in the Fight Against Poverty hold in Managua. More than 100 parliamentary political leaders and donors participated in this workshop. This activity was planned by the project Situation and Perspective of Political Parties in Central America, Panama and Dominican Republic, and was financed by AECI, ASDI, DFID, IDB, IDEA, nIMD and UNDP. The seminar contributed to the discussion of this subject, helping political parties to reflect on and respond more efficiently to the promotion of good government and the fight against poverty within the framework of the Millennium Development Goals; it also provided inputs to donors about how to offer a more efficient support in this area. The main objectives of this regional seminar were: (i) deepen the knowledge of political parties leaders on the evolution of poverty, poverty reduction strategies and its approach in connection with the millennium development goals; and (ii) generate some reflections on the role of political parties in public policymaking directed at poverty reduction in the region.

Meeting with the Coordinating Council. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together persons selected to act as champions to the democratic dialogue process in Saint Kitts and Nevis, and to advise project consultants on the planning and design of the 3 Democratic Dialogue Workshops to be hold there. The meeting was hold at UNDP Barbados. The focus of the “Group of Champions” and project consultants included: (i) the identification of the role of the Champions; (ii) the key socio-economic issues to be addressed at the workshops; (iii) the revision and approval of workshop participants; and (iv) the appropriate cultural context for the process design.

The "Reinventing Globalization" process proposes to act within a context in which the institutional "international community" seems void of any project for the people and the excluded, neo-liberal globalization appears as to weaken, and the alterglobalization movement seems to loose breath. It aims at enhancing new strategies and new alliances within civil society and later beyond, by creating a new dynamic, which will enable to listen to citizens again, to reinvest public space, and to suggest other narratives of the world as it is and other visions of its possible future. The third event of the process that started in New York in 2005 was organized by the Bridge Initiative International and took place in Lyon, France in October. Our director, Elena Díez Pinto was invited as a speaker and facilitator in this high-level conversation.

The Project prepared a case about the education dialogue process Visión Educación and presented it through a teleconference organized by GDP (Generative Dialogue Project). This knowledge exchange was hold within the framework of e-dialogues on “cases about the meaning of generative dialogue”. For this particular case, the following central question was raised: What is the connection between individual-, group- and systemic-level change? Fourteen practitioners of the Community of Practice participated in this e-dialogue from several countries: Guatemala, India, Malaysia, Mauritania, Philippines, and USA.

The Project’s Support Network facilitated and catalyzed e-mail discussions on different topics of interest for its members. The political situation in Bolivia was one of main discussion topics.